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Bathroom Battle Gets Ugly

Utah Women Want TS
Banned From Restroom

By Michael Vigh
Salt Lake Tribune

Contributed by Susan Miles
Salt Lake City
August 22, 1998

Several female courthouse employees, angry over a transsexual using the women's restrooms in the Tooele County Courthouse, have filed a notice of intent to sue the county.

The notice comes on the heels of a 1997 petition in which an estimated 80 percent of female employees at the courthouse asked the Tooele County Commission for a meeting to discuss their concerns about county planner Nicole Cline using the women's restrooms.

Because that meeting never took place, the women decided to take the matter to court.

"All we wanted was a meeting to discuss our concerns and we never got that," said Ann Shosted, a clerk at the justice court.

Added court clerk Frances Romero; "Eighty percent of the women at the courthouse requested a hearing, and [the County Commission] never gave us the time of day."

A notice of intent to sue must be filed because the women are seeking damages from a goverment entity. The notice suggest that because Cline was born a male, she is guilty of misdemeanor lewdness and should be forced to stop using the womens restrooms.

"Our research indicates that the male employee has no right to use the female restroom facilities," the complaint reads.

It also says that the women have suffered civil rights violations and sexual harassment.

"As a result of the county's refusal and failure to rectify this situation, our clinets have incured substantial mental and emotional distress, humiliation, degradation, embarrassment and interference with job performance," the complaint says.

Cline scoffed at the notion that the women have suffered as they have claimed.

" I don't think they have suffered at all," Cline said. "They need to come walk in my shoes for a day I've got a Ph.D. in sexual harassment and emotional distress."

Cline has been declared legally a female by the courts and lives as a female. However, she has yet to have a sex change operation.

"I have lived as a female since April 1997," she said. "The operation will happen very soon."

Cline said she feels what she is going through is similar to what blacks endured prior to civil rights legislation.

"At that time there were black only restrooms," Cline said. "No one should be subjected to discrimination, it just isn't right."

The women also claim Cline's "actions have caused severe mental stress and have created a hostile work enviroment for the female employees at the county complex."

"[Cline's] use of the women's restroom often takes place while the women themselves are using the restroom facilities," the complaint said.

Tooele County Commission Chairman Teryl Hunsaker declined comment on the situation, except to say that the county will designate a men's restroom on the second floor of the courthouse as a "unisex" bathroom.

"This will be like an airplane bathroom that says 'occupied' when someone is in the restroom," Hunsaker said. "It will also allow the person to lock the door for privacy."

Shosted said Hunsaker's plan does not necessarily solve the problem. "It does not suffice. We don't even know if [Cline] will use that facility."

Indeed , Cline said she would not go out of her way to use the second floor bathroom.

"Why should I?" Cline asked. " If I'm on the second floor I will use it. The bottom line is somebody is different around them. They are not willing to be open minded at all."

The notice does not mention what damages the women would be seeking in their planned lawsuit. The women's lawyer, Wayne Freestone, was unavailable for comment.

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